Radiohead bassist Colin Greenwood (center), shown performing with bandmates Ed O'Brien (left) and Jonny Greenwood in 2008, works with a nonprofit to educate South African youths.

Radiohead bassist Colin Greenwood (center), shown performing with bandmates Ed O'Brien (left) and Jonny Greenwood in 2008, works with a nonprofit to educate South African youths.

Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle

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Outside Lands Festival in the first sundown concert at Golden Gate Park with Radiohead taking the main stage on the Polo Field in San Francisco, Calif., on Friday, August 22, 2008.

Outside Lands Festival in the first sundown concert at Golden Gate Park with Radiohead taking the main stage on the Polo Field in San Francisco, Calif., on Friday, August 22, 2008.

Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle

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Outside Lands Festival in the first sundown concert at Golden Gate Park with Radiohead taking the main stage on the Polo Field in San Francisco, Calif., on Friday, August 22, 2008.

Outside Lands Festival in the first sundown concert at Golden Gate Park with Radiohead taking the main stage on the Polo Field in San Francisco, Calif., on Friday, August 22, 2008.

Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle

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Guitarist Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead performs at the Molson Amphitheater in Toronto on Friday, Aug. 15, 2008 as they wind down their North American tour.

Guitarist Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead performs at the Molson Amphitheater in Toronto on Friday, Aug. 15, 2008 as they wind down their North American tour.

Photo: Jim Ross, AP

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Singer Thom Yorke of Radiohead performs at the Molson Amphitheater in Toronto on Friday, Aug. 15, 2008 as they wind down their North American tour. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jim Ross)

Singer Thom Yorke of Radiohead performs at the Molson Amphitheater in Toronto on Friday, Aug. 15, 2008 as they wind down their North American tour. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jim Ross)

Photo: Jim Ross, AP

Radiohead bassist aids Children's Radio Foundation

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(02-04) 10:54 PST San Francisco -- Last week bassist Colin Greenwood of the British rock band Radiohead concluded an 11-day tour of South Africa, one on which he set down his usual instrument and advocated the use of another: a revolutionary piece of technology called a radio.

Greenwood was representing Children's Radio Foundation, a New York organization dedicated to teaching children the tools for creating informative, affecting stories on the radio. Across the developing world, where Facebook, Google and Twitter's digital tentacles don't easily reach, simpler technologies are still the best vehicle for communication and the catalyst for curiosity.

Speaking via Skype from Cape Town, South Africa, Greenwood said that the heart of the foundation's mission is to empower youths to express themselves and be comfortable on a bigger stage. Some of the radio stations he visited didn't have computers, and their antennas struggled to push a signal more than a few miles. But that didn't stop the youths from delivering stories ranging from serious (about being covered with burns) to fun (about music).

"It gives them confidence that their opinions can matter too," he says. "They're producing such fantastic content with just the tools that they have."

Communication tools

In June 2012 the analytics group Internet World Stats found that of Africa's roughly 1 billion people, only 15.6 percent use the Internet regularly. In North America, the number is almost 80 percent. Most of Africa's Internet users are probably in cities, as opposed to rural areas such as the ones Greenwood visited.

Usage rates are growing quickly, but in the meantime, devising effective methods of communication that don't require a Web address is essential. So organizations around the world are looking at ways to leverage simple communication tools, like the radio, to spread complex information.

FrontlineSMS, with staff in Washington, D.C., London and Nairobi, Kenya, has developed an open source software platform that takes basic cell phones and connects them to the Internet. Aid groups and local communities use the software to coordinate disaster response or monitor human rights issues in distant locations, all from what Westerners typically refer to as a "dumbphone."

"People are so accustomed to technology that it's hard to imagine that it hasn't arrived elsewhere yet," notes Rose Shuman, the founder of Question Box, a Santa Monica nonprofit that is developing a more robust version of the 411 telephone information exchange for rural towns in India and Uganda.

The nonprofit sets up call centers in cities. Residents of outlying villages, via cell phone or from a simple box installed in the village center (hence, Question Box), can contact the centers to ask a wide variety of questions. And the questions are answered by people speaking the local language, building trust in not only the information, but in its source.

Willingness to explore

In many villages the majority of citizens are illiterate and not technically savvy, Shuman says, but dialing a phone is familiar and easily teachable. As more people have grown accustomed to dialing a number for answers on topics ranging from sex to crops, "the knowledge (has) moved out of the city."

A key to Question Box's success, Shuman says, is making the access to the Internet - even by proxy - familiar. She also notes that, as she's watched uptake of new technologies in developing countries, a worldwide truth comes to light.

"If you're young, you're a lot more curious and willing to explore," she says. "When you get older, you have that greater fear of being ignorant or feeling stupid."

Barriers to success

Fear of something new is one concern. But foreign aid organizations can also induce barriers to success themselves, through insensitivity to local customs and concerns while pushing a developed world's definition of progress. Even with the best of intentions, these groups can try to institute programs and technologies that are too far out of phase with local cultures.

One Laptop Per Child, a Cambridge, Mass., program, has delivered more than 2.4 million personal computers to developing countries around the globe. But the group has received criticism for handing over the laptops without proper training for students and teachers and failing to adequately support the technology afterward.

In the case of radio, Elizabeth Sachs, the foundation's founder and president, notes cases where an aid group or nongovernmental organization might push a local radio station to run scripted segments on, say, an important health issue such as HIV and AIDS.

Yet, even though the spots may have important statistics and opinions from respected doctors, listenership drops off quickly. Locals want to hear from locals, Sachs says.

The Children's Radio Foundation works with the U.N. Children's Fund on more than 50 training initiatives across Liberia, Zambia, Tanzania, South Africa and Democratic Republic of Congo. It is working with Doctors Without Borders on an HIV and AIDS education program in Cape Town.

What's different, Sachs says, is that all reporting, scripting and broadcasting is done by members of the community themselves. And the foundation does not supply new equipment, other than handheld recording devices, that require significant upkeep. Their programs are about education, not infusing cutting-edge technology for its own sake.

And, Radiohead's Greenwood notes, even in areas with pressing social concerns, the programming that was created naturally took on a balance in content.

"There is a serious side of it," he says. "But they are aware that they don't want to make programs every week that are overly serious."

Not typical fan questions

As when some of the children turned their microphones to him.

Any radio DJ would probably drool at the opportunity to interview a member of perhaps the world's most popular band. But Greenwood's young interviewers, rather than asking the question on his fans' minds - when he'll be on tour next - focused instead on his personal interests and life in Great Britain.